Slandered: The Female Alpha's Reckoning Novel by Wren Whitehead _ Novel




Slandered: The Female Alpha's Reckoning Chapter 01

Chapter 1 The Accusation
"He raped me! He got me pregnant!" The Omega broke down sobbing on the courtroom floor, her cries tearing through the gallery.
The internet exploded. Every comment section screamed the same thing. Kill that animal! Put the Alpha down!
I stood up and slipped off my suit jacket. "I'm a woman. So tell me, how exactly did I get you pregnant?"
*****
"Alpha Alex, the Lycan King has summoned you. You've been implicated in a rape case involving an Omega."
One of the King's Royal Guards showed up at my pack gates with a summons. I just stood there, too stunned to respond. The accusation alone threw me off, but the reasoning behind it made absolutely no sense.
Me? Alex? A female Alpha, raping an Omega?
Years ago, I'd chopped off my long hair and trained myself half to death to avenge my father. I had one goal—become the strongest female Alpha alive. And I did. The short hair stuck around long after the mission was over. It just became part of who I was. Lower-ranked wolves couldn't pick up on my female scent, so most of my pack assumed I was male.
I never bothered correcting them. Gender meant nothing to me. Finding a mate wasn't on my radar, so what did it matter if people got it wrong?
What I didn't see coming was someone twisting that indifference into a weapon.
Funny how that worked.
I'd built Silvermoon Pack from the ground up. Every member got a job, a fair shake, and wages that blew other packs out of the water. Rogues from all over lined up to join because of it. That was the kind of pack I ran.
But none of that mattered to Lilian Blackwell. She was a newly admitted Omega who decided to cause trouble the moment she walked in. She broke pack rules left and right, riled up the others, and started spreading rumors that I'd been using my Alpha authority to force Omegas into mating with me.
Falsely accusing an Alpha was a death sentence in our world.
I didn't kill her, though. I kicked her out of the pack and let her walk away breathing.
That turned out to be a mistake. Lilian went straight to the Lycan King and filed a formal complaint. Then she plastered her "tragic story" all over the internet. She planted herself in front of a camera with puffy, bloodshot eyes and turned on the waterworks. "Silvermoon Pack's Alpha Alex is a monster! He forced a temporary mark on me, raped me, and then threw me out like trash!"
She'd already set up camp at the Royal Court by the time I arrived. She was waving around a forged pregnancy report, choking back tears as she described how powerless she'd been. Too strong, too scary, too Alpha. She was just a helpless little Omega who couldn't fight back.
"Your Majesty, I'm carrying his pup. And he threw me out without a single gold coin. Not even one."
My eyebrow went up as I watched her perform. I had to give the girl credit. Lying to the Lycan King's face took some serious nerve.
She really had no fear of death.
"Your Majesty, I'll take care of this."
The King couldn't have cared less about this soap opera. He waved a dismissive hand in my direction and turned to Lilian. "I'll assign you a court attorney. He'll handle everything between you and Alex."
Lilian didn't catch the boredom in the King's eyes. She read his words as royal backing and flashed me a satisfied little smirk.
Word of my summoning spread online within hours. Every wolf with an internet connection and half my own pack members lost their minds. They all jumped to the same conclusion—the Lycan King had called me in to punish me and deliver justice for Lilian.
Then Lilian posted that the King had personally appointed her a royal attorney. That sealed it. The court of public opinion handed down its guilty verdict, and a good chunk of my own pack flipped on me overnight.
Silvermoon Pack called an emergency council meeting. The Grand Elders ripped into me without bothering to verify a single fact. They declared me unfit to lead.
Every member I'd looked after for years just sat there. Dead quiet. Not a single one opened their mouth to defend me.
I pulled up Lilian's social media on my phone, pressed my fingers against my temples, and raised a hand to shut down Grand Elder, Clair Thornfield, before he could launch into another tirade.
"Clair, you can't be serious. You all know whether I'm capable of assaulting Lilian. You know whether I can get her pregnant. Think about it for two seconds."
Clair's face went blank. Then his jaw dropped. "Good God. I'm a damn fool. Then Lilian..."
I turned toward the mirror. A woman in a fitted hunting jacket stared back at me, all cropped hair and razor-sharp lines. Nothing about her reads female at first glance. A cold smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.
"She wants to stand by her story? Fine. Let her. I'll play along nice and slow, and when the moment's right, I'll give her a front-row seat to the truth. Right in front of the Lycan King."
*****
"Silvermoon Pack's Alpha may look cold and intimidating on the surface, but his personal life is an absolute wreck!"
Lilian plastered her social media with photos of bruises all over her arms, every last one of them self-inflicted.
"He didn't just force his mark on me. He made me get on my knees and call him Master. He told me if I didn't behave, he'd sell me to a black-market brothel!"
Her follower count skyrocketed overnight. Every post she made drew hundreds of comments, all of them cursing my name.
[Why isn't this Alpha dead yet?]
[Alphas think they can do whatever they want? Someone petition the Lycan King to put this scumbag down!]
[Why hasn't the Royal Court stepped in? Are we supposed to live in fear?]
I glanced down at my masculine outfit and felt the sheer absurdity of it all wash over me. The laughter died in my throat, though, when a transmission from another Elder came through.
The voice on the other end was ice-cold. "Alex, Silvermoon Pack's reputation is in the gutter because you couldn't keep it in your pants."
"Mr. Donovan, these are false accusations. Just give me three days..."
"Alex! I'm not a pushover like that old fool Clair! Your whole pack's a laughingstock because of you. Don't come crying to me when I strip you of your title!"
Jon Donovan hung up before I could get another word in. That hot-headed bastard didn't give me a chance to explain. In his eyes, I was just another Alpha who couldn't control his urges. Of course, he had no idea his Alpha was actually a woman.
Before I could catch my breath, my phone rang again. This time, it was my sister, Emily, calling from the Lycan Academy. Her voice trembled with worry. "Alex, are you okay? Why is that woman saying these horrible things about you? I'm so worried..."
Her words came out choked and unsteady. In the background, I could hear her classmates shouting.
"Your brother's a piece of shit! Get out of the academy!"
Son of a bitch!
"Emily, are they giving you a hard time? Don't be scared. I'm coming to get you right now."
I drove through the night and brought Emily home from the academy.
She was an emotional wreck. She was terrified something would happen to me, and she couldn't understand why I'd hidden my identity for so many years.
"Alex, you're a female Alpha. Why don't you just come out and set the record straight?"
I channeled my Alpha energy to calm her restless wolf spirit. She'd only bonded with her wolf recently, and strong emotions sent it spiraling out of control.
"Emily, if I reveal myself now, she'll just change her story. She'll call me a lesbian who harassed her. She could still claim I used my Alpha power to force her into sex with another woman."
I placed a hand on Emily's shoulder and steadied her. "I need Lilian to double down. I need her locked into the version where I marked her and raped her. That way, when the truth drops, she'll have nowhere to run. She's going to learn exactly what it costs to slander an Alpha."
My phone buzzed with a text from Lilian.
"Alex, I'm pregnant with your pup. You owe the baby and me ten million gold coins and a house. Pay up, or I'll destroy you."
I laughed out of sheer disbelief. She wasn't pregnant, and I sure as hell didn't have the equipment to get her that way.
Right on cue, she posted a pregnancy test on her social media. The entire pack erupted. They couldn't believe I'd abandon my own pup, even one supposedly still in Lilian's belly.
I didn't rush to deny anything. Instead, I addressed my pack members directly. "As your Alpha, I owe you an explanation. If the child Lilian is carrying turns out to be mine, I will cover every cent of support."
I sent the same message to Lilian. She screenshotted it and posted it on her feed with the caption, "Alex, you've finally admitted it! You monster! You ruined my life!"
Another avalanche of hate poured in, and my pack came under a string of mysterious attacks over the next few days. I ordered the guards to tighten security on all borders.
"Go talk to Lilian's court-appointed lawyer," I told my pack attorney over the phone. "Record every single exchange, audio and video. I need you to confirm one specific detail. Is Lilian alleging that an Alpha bit her scent gland, injected pheromones, and committed penetrative rape?"
"Alex, I know you're not the kind of Alpha she's making you out to be," my lawyer said on the other end.
The recording arrived half an hour later.
Lilian's court attorney spoke in a polished, formal tone. "Absolutely. Ms. Blackwell states she suffered severe physical and emotional trauma. Mr. Alex would be wise to settle this quickly."
I listened to the recording, and a slow, predatory smile spread across my face.
Lilian, your reckoning was coming.

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